National court leaders launch law school accreditation review panel
Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court amended its Bar admission rules to eliminate the ABA as the sole accrediting body for purposes of Florida Bar eligibility
The Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators have created a new joint working group to examine law school accreditation and its role in bar admission requirements nationwide.
The creation of the new working group derives from one of the nine initial recommendations proposed by Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform (CLEAR), a standing committee of both conferences, in July 2025. Recommendation three says that state supreme courts should:
“Encourage law school accreditation that serves the public. State supreme courts should encourage an accreditation process that promotes innovation, experimentation, and cost-effective legal education geared toward lawyers meeting the legal needs of the public.”
“As the primary regulators of the legal profession in their respective jurisdictions, state supreme courts must be at the table for the ongoing public discussion on the future of law school accreditation,” said Chief Justice Gordon J. MacDonald of New Hampshire and chair of the CLEAR committee.
In Florida, those conversations are already underway.
Earlier this year, the Florida Supreme Court amended its Bar admission rules to eliminate the ABA as the sole accrediting body for purposes of Florida Bar eligibility. The court created a framework that would allow additional accrediting agencies — if recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and approved by the court — to carry out an accrediting and gatekeeping function.
In its January 15 opinion, the court said its goal is to promote access to “high-quality, affordable legal education” while maintaining standards tied to nondiscrimination and the free exchange of ideas. The court emphasized that graduates of ABA-accredited law schools will continue to be eligible to sit for the Florida bar examination and that the amendments do not prevent schools from maintaining ABA accreditation.
No additional accrediting agency has yet been identified in Florida, and the court has not finalized procedures for approving institutional accreditors. The amendments take effect October 1.
The accreditation working group will be chaired by Justice C. Shannon Bacon of the New Mexico Supreme Court, who serves as vice chair of CLEAR.
“This working group will bring a big tent approach to understanding the current challenges to, and the future of, law school accreditation,” said Justice Bacon. “Our objective is to collect a diversity of viewpoints, so CLEAR can offer practical, concrete recommendations that reflect the consensus of [the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators].”
The working group will operate from March through December and will submit its draft report of findings and recommendations to the CLEAR Committee no later than December 2026.